I have been blessed with a wonderful baby sitting job for a family here in SLO. They have two young boys. J just turned three, and is so much fun. He loves building forts, play dough, and ghost pirates. C is almost 12 weeks, takes a bottle like a champ, and loves to have dance parties with his older bro. Needless to say I stinking love them. They are the best. Save for one catch.
J, being 3, has naturally reached the threshold for potty training. His mom reminds him each day as she leaves the house, “J, who are you gonna tell if you have to go potty?” To which he replies, “Sawa.” That’s me.
Turns out that he never actually tells Sawa if he needs to go. So the responsibility lies with me to constantly ask, “J, do you need to go potty?” To which the response is infallibly a whiney “I don’t wanna go!” But at least once I trudge him downstairs to the little, er I mean, “big boy” potty and let him try to go. I mean, he loses nothing for trying. He even gets a Pez candy just for squatting on the pot. Win-win, I say. He doesn’t think so, though.
He usually stands, stiff-legged in front of his tiny potty and squeals “NOOOOOOOO.” As I try to calmly coax him into sitting down and just giving a little push. I kid you not: he is deathly afraid of doo doo. I have no clue why, but the kid will go days without a #2 sighting and give himself a huge stomach ache. His mom assures me that this is totally normal for kids his age, but I still have my doubts. I just feel like a villain each time I have to march him downstairs to give it a try. Hopefully this phobia subsides soon!
